Hidden behind all the administrative scandals that rocked India in 2010, illegal mining is an unnoticed beast that has been eating into the country's soul.   While corruption in spectrum allocation and the conduct of the Commonwealth Games are primarily about monetary loot, illegal mining is about invaluable non-renewable natural resources.   In at least five major states, there were more than 20,000 complaints of illegal mining filed, but the perpetrators carried on with...

‘For the Indian media, the key question is one of covering mass deprivation' Time to rediscover concept of freedom of press in Marxist terms: Sashi Kumar N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, has called for “bold and radical” ways to check the ethical failings of the media. Inaugurating a seminar ‘Whither Media,' organised as part of the three-day Third International Congress on Kerala Studies, which concluded here on Monday, Mr. Ram said that...

Describing the conviction of rights activist Binayak Senby a trial court as “a travesty of justice,” social activist Swami Agnivesh expressed the hope here on Sunday that the Supreme Court would take notice of it and rescind the order. Demanding that Dr. Sen be set free, Swami Agnivesh pointed out that the authorities of the Raipur Central Jail, who were present when he met Narayan Sanyal, Polit Bureau member of the...

He had been defending political dissenters since the late 1960s Eminent civil rights activist and prominent lawyer K.G. Kannabiran (81) passed away in Hyderabad after a brief illness on Thursday evening. He is survived by wife Vasanta, two daughters and a son. The last rites were performed later in the evening in the presence of family members as per his wish. Born in 1929, Mr. Kannabiran obtained master's degree in Economics and a...

Prominent lawyer Ram Jethmalani on Tuesday offered to defend rights activist Binayak Sen, who was sentenced by a trial court to life imprisonment for sedition, in a higher judiciary. He also said he did not find it contradictory to fight the case and be a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP at the same time. “No party line says that lawyers should not appear for some people,” Mr. Jethmalani said. He said...